Dragon Fire Dreams
by lydiamaartin
Summary: If you can't remember what happened the night you got wildly drunk, it probably isn't important. Or, a day in the lives of Charlie Weasley and Nymphadora Tonks. - CharlieTonks


**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters.**

**For Bittersweet x, one of my amazing, loyal reviewers, who requested a CharlieTonks with the prompts 'glitter' and 'noses'. Hope you like this!**

**Also for the Slytherin Corner's Daily Prompts, with the word prompts 'fear', 'duelling', and 'charisma', and the wild-card prompt 'two people getting wildly drunk together and waking up the next morning, unable to remember a thing'.

* * *

**Forever, she's been the girl that glitters under spotlights, shineshine_shining_ with her own inner glow, and there's no way he can keep up with her.

(Is there?)

* * *

She's his best friend, see, she's Nymphadora Tonks with the bubblegum hair and the sunshine smile, and she's always dragging him off into her (their) crazy adventures, usually ending up with a detention for her trouble, but never ending up without him.

And he's Charlie Weasley, the brother with the dragon-fire hair and dragon-fire dreams, and he's always going along with her simply for the adrenaline rush (for _her_), serving detention with her because he'd do anything for her, anything at all, even drinking himself to the point of unconsciousness at a party (though he'd have done that anyway, admittedly).

"Do you think, maybe, we drank a little too much?" she asks him blearily the night after Gryffindor had won the Quidditch cup and she'd woken up in their Common Room, curled up next to him on a couch by the crackling fire.

Charlie blinks away the sleep from his eyes. "Maybe. What happened?"

"I don't know," Tonks yawns, attempting to stretch but quickly stopping for fear of smacking him accidentally. "Nobody else is here."

"They must all be in their dormitories," he rationalizes, gently disentangling their bodies and clambering out of the couch. "Probably too hungover to get out of bed at the moment."

She rubs her head, hair turning scarlet, and blinks down at him from where she's still sprawled on the couch. "What do you suppose happened last night?"

"Nothing of importance, if we can't remember it," he answers, grinning at her.

Tonks giggles a little, reaching for him as she attempts to sit up. "True. Has that always been our policy?"

"Of course," Charlie catches her hand in his and helps her to a sitting position. "I think it started with that one duelling incident back in fourth year. Bill's never quite forgiven you for that, y'know."

"I don't even remember what happened," she complains, a mischievous twinkle in her forest-green eyes. "S'not my fault his hair grew out to his back."

"Like I said – if we don't remember it, it wasn't important," he recites, nodding knowingly and inciting more laughter from her. "And, anyway, he ended up liking it. Said something about how it gave him more charisma. Whatever the hell that means."

"Stop making me laugh!" she demands, smacking his chest, though her hit lacks energy thanks to her hangover. "It's not good for my brain."

"Neither is firewhiskey, but that doesn't stop you," he points out, smirking. "Or that thing you do with your nose."

On cue, she turns her nose into a pig's snout and sticks her tongue out at him. "My noses are the _best_, Weasley. Don't even try and argue."

He raises his hands in surrender, trying to hold back his laughter. "I'm not arguing. I'm just saying perhaps they're not the best cure for that hangover."

Tonks winces, hands flying to her goldenrod locks in a gesture of mostly-genuine pain. "Don't remind me. Don't you have the potion for this?"

"Not on me," Charlie snorts. "We can go ask Madam Pomfrey, though. She's used to us."

"She is, isn't she?" Tonks muses, her voice trailing off, and it's quite clear she's not paying attention to the conversation at all. "Hey, Charlie? What do you want to do when you graduate?"

He blinks, not expecting the conversation to take this road. "Um, I don't know. Something at the Ministry, I guess. Why?"

She laughs, reaching out and taking his hand, intertwining their fingers and squeezing once, and he tries not to notice how warm and soft her hand is. "I know you're worried about not living up to Bill," she tells him gently, "but the truth is, you've got as much charisma and heart as he does. And you don't need to work at the Ministry to prove yourself. Do what you love. Go chase dragons or play professional Quidditch or something."

Charlie stares. There are butterflies in his stomach, and it feels like the Common Room is spinning around, like his entire _world_ spining around, all because of _her_, because of this girl with bubblegum hair who glitters in life, who's for some reason taken him, dragon boy with dragon dreams, into her life, her heart, as her best friend.

"Thanks, Dora," he says, finally breaking the silence, his voice cracking in the middle of her name. "Love you."

"Love you, too," she replies simply, because there's nothing else to say. They're best friends, and they've said it all.

* * *

On the night of her wedding, he drinks so much, he doesn't even remember his _name_, but he does remember what happened that night (_she got married, and it wasn't to him_).

(He never was able to keep up with her.)

* * *

**Author's Notes: Whoa, talk about 'out of my comfort zone' =P CharlieTonks is quite a fun pairing to play with, though! Hope you guys liked this! If you read, please review and let me know what you thought! Thank you!**

**Don't favorite without reviewing, please and thank you :)**


End file.
